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Staff Writer

I’m really enjoying how writers aren’t just using their AvX tie-ins to show big dumb fights between Avengers and X-Men, but to do different things, and to make the crossover work for them, to work for their own ongoing storylines, even as it derails them. This issue is a good example of this, as Jason Aaron uses the events of AvX and the involvement of the Shi’Ar to tell the origin story of Warbird. And what a great story it was, a great way to show the alien nature of her race, of how they value cruelty and violence over creativity, and also to develop a character who up until now has mainly been in the background getting annoyed at Kid Gladiator. I love how the reason she is his bodyguard is so she can learn to hate children, hilarious. Even from the opening scene of her looking at Rorschach blots and lying about what she sees (I’m choosing to believe this was a deliberate homage to Watchmen on Aaron’s part, it has to be, and it works really well) this issue just told us a lot about who Warbird is, and about the dangers of being different in Shi’Ar culture. I feel really sorry for her now, and I never would have said that an issue ago. Hopefully she an Iceman can find happiness together, although he may find it hard to sleep with someone who decapitated him. Nick Bradshaw’s art was very good once again, I know his cartoonish style isn’t for everyone, but I often find that more unrealistic styles are better at expressing emotion to the readers than realistic one, and he excelled at drawing the alien scenes on Chandilar.

Staff Writer

I’m really enjoying how writers aren’t just using their AvX tie-ins to show big dumb fights between Avengers and X-Men, but to do different things, and to make the crossover work for them, to work for their own ongoing storylines, even as it derails them. This issue is a good example of this, as Jason Aaron uses the events of AvX and the involvement of the Shi’Ar to tell the origin story of Warbird. And what a great story it was, a great way to show the alien nature of her race, of how they value cruelty and violence over creativity, and also to develop a character who up until now has mainly been in the background getting annoyed at Kid Gladiator. I love how the reason she is his bodyguard is so she can learn to hate children, hilarious. Even from the opening scene of her looking at Rorschach blots and lying about what she sees (I’m choosing to believe this was a deliberate homage to Watchmen on Aaron’s part, it has to be, and it works really well) this issue just told us a lot about who Warbird is, and about the dangers of being different in Shi’Ar culture. I feel really sorry for her now, and I never would have said that an issue ago. Hopefully she an Iceman can find happiness together, although he may find it hard to sleep with someone who decapitated him. Nick Bradshaw’s art was very good once again, I know his cartoonish style isn’t for everyone, but I often find that more unrealistic styles are better at expressing emotion to the readers than realistic one, and he excelled at drawing the alien scenes on Chandilar.